Shortly after the launch of his own long-awaited RPG, BioWare creative director and Dragon Age: The Veilguard lead John Epler praises Metal Gear mastermind Hideo Kojima for his ability to bring whatever he has envisioned to the screen as a solid video game.
Speaking in a recent post on BlueSky in response to a Washington Post article on Kojima, Epler shares his thoughts on the fellow creator’s reputation and work. “Generally I resist the idea of auteurship in games,” writes the Dragon Age director, “because so much of how a game turns out is out of the control of any individual person.” According to Epler, Kojima, however, “is one of the few people that I think earns it.”
He continues his reply in a thread, explaining why Kojima stands out among other designers, using his experience with The Veilguard’s release as an example. As someone who just went through shipping a AAA game in a leadership role,” continues Epler, “having a vision is easy. Clearly communicating that vision and doing so in an actionable way? That’s the hard part, but he’s done it multiple times.”
Epler also goes on to say that “Death Stranding is unlike anything else I’ve ever played and while I don’t know if I love it, I admire it a lot.” Kojima’s surreal action game is “a very good game to disassociate to” and while he admits that he doesn’t “actually know what the story is intended to be,” its “moment-to-moment gameplay loop just works for me so well” – a fair point of view, if you ask me.
With the ever-mysterious OD still in the works, there’s no telling what Kojima has in store for the future after Death Stranding and its upcoming sequel, either. As Epler seems to put it, however, one thing is for certain – Kojima’s new projects are sure to shine the way that all of his previous work does, in a strange yet beautiful fashion that perfectly encapsulates their creator’s “vision.”
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